Forever or Love, Intrigue, and Bad Cafeteria Food
by Rostand
Summary: A 5x1 shonen-ai fic that takes place in a school bearing a startling resemblance to my own. Really cheesy.


**Forever**

**or******

**Love, Intrigue, and Bad Cafeteria Food**

**Kauri**

**Author's Note: Yay! Contest time! Pluggity-plug-plug-plug: for the Society For Helping Wufei Get Some.  I honestly have no clue what spawned this fic. I think this is my first attempt at yaoi. It bites, don't it? I know! Ahh! Enough with the rotten tomatoes! Anyway, enjoy!**

**Warnings: strawberry, Heero pseudo-angst, shonen-ai (no duh). **

**Disclaimer: *congoing around the room shaking Wufei-shaped maracas* I don't own THEM! I don't own THEM! I don't own THEM! So please don't sue me, cha-cha-cha! **

**Forever**

or

**Love, Intrigue, and Bad Cafeteria Food**

Wufei glared at the school building. He knew it wasn't the school building's fault that he was here, but for some reason felt some deep and abiding hate for it. Yet another private school. Yet another uniform. Oh the joy, oh the rapture, oh the bliss. Why did it have to be a Catholic high school? Why not just a normal public school, with no uniform. Why Catholic? Wufei didn't even know what religion he belonged to, much less did he care. But here he was, enrolled in Grade 10 at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School. He could barely pronounce the name, let alone spell it. But there had been reports of some terrorist actions, mainly through computer systems, originating from this area. The suspect was definitely high school age, and had to be extremely intelligent. Gonzaga was the repository for mentally gifted students in the area. Therefore, the attacker was probably in this school. Which meant undercover work. Which meant the youngest Preventer. Which meant Wufei. 

            He hoped he could find the kid and get out of here. He'd had enough of school assignments. Wufei glanced at the timetable in his hand. Advanced Math, Science, Business Technology, and Theology. The same subjects a computer hacker would be taking. Especially if said computer hacker had to take Theology

            Now students were arriving, jostling against Wufei as they streamed in the double doors, a sea of conformity. Not that Wufei was any different. Same tight, hot, stuffy blazer, same chokingly tight tie, same khakis. He sighed and headed in, determined to find his first class, Math, without asking for directions. 

            After several false tries, Wufei had to swallow his pride and ask a teacher. She pointed him down a hallway he hadn't noticed before. He found the class, and memorized a short cut for another day, if indeed this case took longer than a day. He took a seat in the back corner, far away from the other few people who were chattering and gossiping. The math teacher looked up from her desk, noticed Wufei, and beckoned him forward. He sighed and got up, leaving the backpack borrowed for the day behind.

            "You are new student?" She inquired in a clipped accent. Wufei couldn't exactly identify which country she was from, but assumed from somewhere around Poland or Czechoslovakia.

            "Yes,' he replied, sizing her up. She was short, petite, and very obviously pregnant. She was an adopted blond with black roots and thick black glasses that made her look somewhat like a bug. She glanced down at her binder, flipping through the pages. Apparently finding what she was looking for, she unclipped an orange sheet and handed it to Wufei. 

            "You're Wufei Chang, no? So you fill this out, bring it back, I give you your locker number, okay?"

            "Yes, ma'am," Wufei replied. He took the orange sheet back to his secluded seat and quickly filled out the sheet with the false information on it that he and Sally had agreed on. He took it back and she handed him a lock with the combination and locker number on the back. 

            The last few stragglers came in, just as the bell rang. The heavily pregnant teacher stood up and made her way to the front of the room. "Good morning, students. Today we have a new student, Wufei Chang. Please make him welcome. Wufei, if you do not know me, I am Mrs. Leonczuk. Please ask me question if you not understand, alright?"

            Wufei nodded, and she started the lesson. It was elementary stuff that he had covered in his basic training long ago. Wufei distractedly scribbled some notes down while scoping out the class for possible terrorists. There were no real threatening looking kids. One almost looked the part. Glasses, kind of scrawny, odd looking. Wufei filed a note of him in the back of his mind for further research. 

            The class ended in due course, with no homework other than review their notes for the quiz tomorrow. As Wufei stepped outside the classroom, he decided to skip looking for his locker now and decided to go straight to science. If he could find it. Luckily, he noticed a periodic table in one of the room down a side hall, and identified the science hallway (there was an odd logic to the seemingly haphazardly placed room numbers). Finding room 329 was easy from there, pushing through the throngs of students who streamed through the numerous hallways. 

            The science teacher was a slightly hunched middle-aged woman who spoke in very condescending voice. She gave Wufei a textbook and assigned him a seat. Other than that, she paid him no attention. Mrs. Schroder (for that was her name) quickly outlined the experiment they would be doing that day, a simple one with vinegar and baking soda in a plastic bag. When she gave the word, Wufei claimed one of the lab stations at the far end of the room. Since there were an odd number of people in the class and the lab called for partners, Wufei was pretty sure that he would be working alone. 

            However, as soon as Wufei had sat down, a girl plunked her notebook beside his. Wufei looked up, slightly startled. The new girl was heavyset, but had a friendly, open look about her face, added to by her high cheeks and little nose, on the end of which perched a pair of sliver-rimmed glasses. Her hair was light brown and tied back in a ponytail. Bits of it had escaped and created a halo of flyaways around her head.

            Before he could get anything out of his open mouth, she dangled a pair or goggles in front of him. "You forgot these," She said, shoving them at him. She had her own pair perched on her forehead, and quickly pulled them down. "Okay, let's get started." She started bustling around the experiment.

            Wufei blinked a few times. "Uh, okay…"

            As she worked, the girl introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Helen. I'm the unofficial Gonzaga welcome wagon. I know all the kids in the school by sight and most of them by name, so I can pick a new kid out of a crowd. So what's your name, where'd you come from, do you want to pour the baking soda?"

            Wufei almost felt like yelling at the girl, but found himself unable to. He took the baking soda and started tapping it into the water. "My name's Wufei, I lived in the United States before this, and yes, I would like to do the baking soda."

            The two kept talking for a while. Wufei gave her the edited version of his history, and she told him bits and pieces about the school, unspoken rules, etc. When the period was over, the chemicals away, and the books packed up, Helen offered to help him find his locker. Wufei almost refused, but remembered how hard it was to find anything in this school, so graciously accepted. He told her the locker number, and she headed straight for it, weaving around the crowd and answering the choruses of 'Hellos!' that followed her. 

            "Told ya I know everyone," she said smugly, as they arrived at his locker. "I'm gonna go grab my stuff. My locker's just over there," she jerked her thumb at a bank of lockers standing nearby. "Let me walk you to lunch. I promised the other new kid I'd meet him there. I help all the new kids get around."

            "Other new kid?" Wufei asked.

            "Yeah, just transferred." Helen replied. "Doesn't talk much. Right scrawny he is too. Well, anyway, see ya in a few." She whirled and flounced away. Wufei turned and opened the plain blue locker. He shoved the textbooks and binders from math and science in, then shut it, fumbling with the lock. He turned around and saw Helen leaning against the lockers.

            "Ready to go?" she asked. Wufei nodded, and she turned and led the way down the stairs. When they stepped inside the student commons, or the 'caf' as Helen called it, Wufei felt like he was watching a slow CGI pan in a movie. The kids were swarming. "Did you bring your lunch, or buying something?" Helen asked, raising her voice to be heard over the babble of the caf. 

            "I  brought my lunch," Wufei replied, eyeing the crowded room apprehensively. Helen noticed the look on his face and laughed.

            "Don't worry, you'll get used to it," she said. "At least I hope I do. C'mon, I'm gonna check up on the other new kid."

            Wufei followed Helen to an almost deserted table at the far end of the caf. There was a lone figure seated there. Wufei felt a vague sense of recognition as they got closer, which suddenly sharpened as the boy looked up. Prussian met black, and Wufei's eyes widened in recognition. The other boy's eyes narrowed and he looked down again. 

            Helen stopped beside him. "Hey, Duo! This is Wufei, another new student. Wufei, Duo, Duo, Wufei. Oh, gotta run, I have a practice!" Helen dashed away and Wufei slid onto the bench beside the former pilot, who was definitely not Duo, unless Duo had cut off his braid, died it darker, got colour contacts, and suddenly became Japanese.

            "What the hell are you doing here, Heero?" Wufei hissed. "And why the hell are you using Duo's name?"

            Heero shrugged. "I've done it before. And I could ask you the same question."

            "I'm one assignment for the Preventers. But what are you doing here. You dropped out of sight after the last battle with Mariemeia." Wufei replied, keeping his voice down.

            Heero continued eating his sandwich. "I know I did. I hoped you would think I died."

            Wufei snorted. "No such luck. You really think we'd assume you, you were dead? I mean, we may be government run, but we aren't stupid."

            "Oh really?" Heero finished the sandwich and rolled up the wrapper.

            "What are you really doing here, Yuy?" Wufei demanded.

            "Trying to take over the world." Heero said it as calmly as if he were discussing the weather. He got up and blended in with the crowd, leaving Wufei sitting alone with the rapidly cooling hamburger in his hand. 

            Wufei's next class was Theology. Other than copying some noes distractedly, Wufei spent most of the time thinking. If Heero was the hacker Wufei was looking for, that would mean Wufei would have to turn him in. But even if  he was the hacker, Wufei wasn't sure if he could do it. His orders were clear, but he also felt he owed a lot to the silent pilot. Heero had managed to open Wufei's eyes in that last battle. After yelling that cryptic goodbye, Heero had plunged into the ocean with Wing. The next time Wufei had seen him was when Heero had blasted the governor's mansion. He wondered if Heero had found the answer. Wufei had. And for that, Wufei owed him a debt of gratitude – Wufei owed more to Heero than the Preventers, but the Preventers control his paycheck – not to mention keep the peace. Wufei's loyalties were torn. 

            He endured the awful joke the religion teacher told (What type of cheese isn't your cheese?), and walked out of the classroom. Luckily, his next class was right across the hall, Information in Business Technology. Wufei introduced himself to the teacher and took a seat in front of a computer at the back of the room. The room gradually filled up with chattering students, most of whom Wufei ignored with a glare. There were only two vacant seats by the time the bell rang, those on either side of Wufei. At the last second, another student slid through the door. Wufei heard footsteps beside him, then the slam of a binder on the desk. When he glanced up, his eyes met an intense pair of Prussian ones.

            "Wufei," Heero murmured politely.

            "Heero," Wufei replied, putting slight emphasis on the name, as the potbellied and balding teacher called out, "Duo! You're late again!"

            Heero sighed and turned around. "Yes, Mr. Sumerkamp."

            "You know what this means. You're toast! I'm gonna toast you like a coffeebean." (A/N: Yes, his name is Mr. Sumerkamp, and yes, he does not give them Fs. He gives them Ts, for Toast. And yes, he actually said "toast you like a coffeebean). "Detention! After class!"

            "Yes, Mr. Sumerkamp."

            Wufei recognized the faintly murderous undertone in Heero's voice. "Cool it, Heero," he said in an undertone as Heero slid into the seat next to him. "We wouldn't want to blow our cover, now would we?"

            "Fuck off, Wufei." 

            The rest of the class was spent in almost total silence. Par for the course for this pair.

*************************************************

            Leaving 'Duo' to his fate as toast, Wufei headed for the public library attached to the school. HE figured a quiet bit of snooping in the computer lab and among the students wouldn't hurt. The computer lab reveled nothing. The system was locked behind so many firewalls that Wufei couldn't do anything. The students told Wufei nothing that he didn't already know.

            "That shrimpy little niner?" one jock in a sling said in response to Wufei's question. "Yeah, whole damn schools knows about that little shit. Did this to me when I tried to get friendly!" he motioned towards the damaged arm. His friends snickered.

            "Friendly, yeah," one scoffed. Wufei turned away in disgust.

            He hoped the bus back to his temporary quarters and hurriedly waded through the mountain of homework before making his report to Lady Une. He reported that he had found a few possible suspects, but didn't mention that one of them happened to be Heero. He fired off the report and turned in after a quick supper of a warmed-over Pizza Pocket. He started formulating his plan for the next day. 

*************************************************

            The next morning sped by, math and science blurring together. Wufei was sitting in the caf eating his lunch when trouble showed up.  Trouble in the shape of five or six Neanderthal-type thugs, with simpering brainless chicks hanging off them. The leader of the thugs, a slightly smaller boy with a shock of curly hair that looked like a dog had pissed on it, caught Wufei's attention with "Yo, China Boy!"

            Wufei looked up coolly. "Yes, Canada Boy?"

            "We heard youse wuz talkin' shit 'bout our pal Duo. Ain't nobody talk shit 'bout our pal. Ain't nobody gonna touch him, neither. Youse got it?" Wufei groaned internally. Oh joy. Somehow Heero managed to hire this gang of thugs to slow him up.

            "Run that by again, in English this time."

            "Hey, China Boy, you makin' fun of 'ow weez talkin'? You gonna touch us? Ain't nobody touch us." The boy's jaw jutted out pugnaciously. "You wanna touch us?"

            Wufei was getting annoyed "If that's what it'll take to get you to leave me along, then yes. I do want to 'touch you'" To accent his words, he stood up, standing eye to eye with the leader. His eyes went flinty in a passable imitation of the deathglare that Heero had managed to perfect. Piss-Hair blinked and backed up a step. 

            Trying to keep his impression of mob mentality at maximum, he uttered a face-saving, "We'll settle with you later," and beat a hasty retreat. Wufei sat back down, unaware of the stir that his little exhibition had caused. 

            _So Heero's trying to trip me up, eh? he thought to himself. __He must be planning something. The attacks have come from behind a firewall – good chance he's using the school's computers instead of his own. If he's trying to distract me now, there's a good chance he was planning something for tonight. Probably overestimated his bully boys, hoping they would have him in the hospital or in reduced function. Wufei smiled. __Not too damn likely. Wufei frowned. There was something that just didn't sit right, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Wufei pushed it to a corner of his mind as the warning bell rung (rather dinged)._

            Heero's second attempt at distracting Wufei came after school, as Wufei was on the way to the bus stop. As soon as he left the school, a flock of girls descended on him, praising him for standing up to the school mob. A deathglare and a quick duck into the greenhouse got rid of most of them, but three hung on until he got off the bus. 

            _Definitely tonight, he thought, shucking off his school uniform and slipping into something more comfortable. __Probably after 3 or 4.__ If the duty roster I saw in the staff room is any indication, that's when the night janitor leaves. Wufei made his report to Une, including the latest developments. He gave some hints that they had encountered the perp before, but left it at that. If the facts came out, he couldn't have been straight off lying to his superiors. _

***********************************************

            3:30 that night saw a black shadow slip along the side of the school building and jimmy the door, deactivating the alarm system in the process. The black shadow slipped through the upper halls towards the computer labs. A faint light at the end of the hall told Wufei where the hacker was.

            _If it is Heero, he's mighty sloppy, Wufei noted. Putting it down to a lack of practice and further training, Wufei stopped at the door to the lab, which was slightly ajar. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw the hunched figure at one of the far computers. From the glowing silhouette, Wufei saw the tousled hair, the slim, muscular form. No doubt about it. The hacker was Heero._

            Wufei was debating whether or not to make his presence known or to wait for Heero to make a move. His decision was made for him when Heero started to talk. He wasn't talking to Wufei, he wasn't even talking at him. He didn't acknowledge the presence of the other boy at all. But Wufei knew the word were meant for him. And in the same moment he realized this, he realized what had been bugging him. Heero had been too sloppy. The attempts to trip him up had been too obvious. Wufei had been led around by the nose like a puppet. 

            Heero's words weren't loud, really no more than a louder than average murmur, but they were clearly audible in the stillness of the shutdown school. 

            "I wasn't very surprised that the Preventers sent Wufei after me. Sort of inevitable, actually. Although I wish he had done a bit more research before running off the fight the good fight." Heero paused for a moment, then resumed, both talking and typing. "If he had checked out which files the hacker had gotten into, what that damn company was up to behind closed doors, maybe the Preventers would have realized that they should have had arrested that slimy CEO. I wonder when he'll figure it out. Probably. Wufei's smart enough to follow my tracks, even though he couldn't get through the library firewall." Heero cleared his throat. "If only he would think to use the HunterSeeker through one of the school Internet ports and get to Sympatico. He could trace the account under his name to find out something he didn't know before."

            Wufei blinked. Heero had used his name? And why was he telling him how to follow his tracks? He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Heero kept talking.

            "I hope he doesn't figure that out too soon however. It's nice having a familiar face around. Relena once in a while is fine, but then again, it's Relena." Wufei's mouth quirked at the dry humour. "I learned a lot in that last battle, even if he didn't answer me. Did he? Not then, and not in so many words, but he did. He opened my eyes. Why do you think Wing booted up again? Why do you thing I kept fighting?" The typing had stopped, as had all pretense of talking to himself. "You opened my eyes, Wufei. You looked beyond the rigmarole of peace to the truth behind it. We can't stop fighting, can we? But you were the only one who admitted it to yourself. We were all too scared. The others all realized it, later, after everything was over. Everyone respected you." Heero stood up, his fist balled on the table. "I did, too. But I couldn't face you, not after I had tried to escape the truth. How many times did I have to kill that little girl and her dog, Wufei?" He whirled around. "How many?"

            "Heero, I –" Wufei started, but Heero turned around again and lapsed back into the second person. "I learned a lot from him that battle. I respect him. I – I think I love him."

            He turned around and rushed past Wufei, pressing against him briefly. Then he was gone. Wufei blinked and sagged onto the nearby table.

            Heero? Love him? _LOVE him? Love __him? Wufei had always thought that if he had leaned that way, he would have leaned towards Duo. Wufei knew Duo leaned towards Heero. But him? Wufei? Heero? And him? It was too much for his overloaded brain to assimilate. He should go home and make his report – Heero loved him?_

            No, report first. Duty first. Always. Heero loved him? No, make the damn report! But….love? _Why don't I feel disgusted, or at least creeped out? he asked himself. __Maybe because you wanted it this way, a tiny voice in the back of his head replied._

            Making up his mind, he strode out of the computer lab and left the building. In the rosy light of false dawn, he saw the footsteps in the dew that was just turning to frost on the grass of the football field. Glancing up, he saw a figure hurrying across the field to the plaza across the way. Wufei jogged after him. 

            Heero never looked back. Cursing himself for seven types of a fool, he plowed across the grass, not caring about the tracks he left or the bitter predawn cold. He headed for the relative shelter of the small plaza, where he could hide until Wufei went away. Why had he said that? Why? He hadn't been meaning to. He had just wanted to show Wufei what Montebaum Corp. was doing. But no, he had to ruin himself in Wufei's eyes by spewing out his true feelings. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

            He ducked between the few parked cars and down the small alley between Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons, finding shelter behind a Dumpster. He plunked himself down on the ground and wrapped his arms around his knees, trying to keep out the chill, and keep in the tears. 

            Wufei had lost sight of his quarry when Heero had crossed the road. Wufei hurried into the plaza. Nothing there. It was deserted, excepted for a few parked cars and a couple of seagulls who were awake too early. He searched around, looking for Heero, until a faint sound attracted his attention to the barely noticeable alleyway between Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire. 

            He slipped in, isolating the cause of the sound. As he rounded the corner of a Dumpster, he saw why. Heero was shivering next to it, his elbow banging the metal. He was just wearing his usual tank top and shorts. Wufei had on think pants, a sweater, a turtleneck, and a warm coat. He paused a moment, then took off his coat. He draped it gently around the thin boy's bony shoulders. 

            Immediately the shivering stopped. Heero tensed up. He raised his head from between his knees and looked up at Wufei. His eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed again. He shrugged the coat off.

            "Don't need your sympathy, Wufei," he said in a voice gruffer than usual. "You don't have to do this. You're probably disgusted with me. I can understand."

            Wufei crouched down and replaced the coat. "I'm not disgusted with you," he said, in a voice softer than usual. "Surprised, yes, but disgusted, no. Pleased, yes. Very pleased."

            Heero looked up sharply. "You mean, you—"

            Wufei nodded. "Yes, Heero, I think I do." Without thinking, he reached out and laid a hand on Heero's arm. Heero stiffened momentarily, but relaxed and covered Wufei's hand with his own.

            "How long?"

            "Forever."

            "Forever?" Heero echoed

            "Forever," Wufei replied.

            Then their lips were on each others' and their arms twined around each other, reveling in the joy of touching. Fire raced through Wufei's body from Heero's lips soft on his to his hand on Heero's back, to where their bodies ground together, back to his lips and beyond.

            They broke apart, but remained holding each other, Wufei standing straight and Heero half standing, half leaning against him.

            "For how long?" Wufei murmured into Heero's ear.

            Heero shuddered with pleasure at the touch of Wufei's breath. "Forever, Wu,"

            "Forever?"

            "Forever."

            "Then why don't we make it forever?"

**Author's Note: Wow, eight whole pages. I know, it was crappy, but it was written! Review! Please! I need feedback!!! **

~ Kauri the Utterly Wacked, Lord of the Onion Rings, and desperate for approval.

Leave a review!


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